In the field of financial-type business transactions, a commonly used record medium is a passbook or bankbook for maintaining a record of each transaction. The passbook is inserted into a business machine for reading the contents of the passbook, for printing information or data in the passbook, and for recording the printed information or data in the passbook.
In the operation of the business machine for passbook printing therein, the passbook is inserted at the front of the machine and the passbook is then transported or conveyed past a printing station toward the rear of the machine where the current status of the record is read by means of read/write mechanism from a magnetic stripe on the passbook. The passbook is then transported to the printing station for printing operation after which the passbook is again transported toward the rear of the machine where the printed information is recorded by means of the read/write mechanism in a write operation on the magnetic stripe. The passbook is then transported toward the front and out of the business machine.
In prior mechanisms there have been at least two types of means for conveying a printed medium such as a passbook or a handbook to predetermined positions in a printer or other business machine to enable the required operations. One type of conveying means uses pairs of rollers spaced from each other and disposed at spaced intervals along the path of the handbook and which rollers are rotatably engaged with the handbook. Another type uses rollers provided on both sides of a feed path and includes belts driven by the rotating rollers and engageable with the handbook. Along with the rollers utilized for conveying the handbook to different locations in the printer is apparatus or mechanism for turning the pages of the handbook.
Representative documentation in the field of page turning apparatus includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,141, issued to M. Ito et al. on Oct. 8, 1985, which discloses automatic document page turning apparatus having a rotating drive roller and feed means for moving the document to a page turning position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,828, issued to M. Nogami et al. on July 15, 1986, discloses a system for issuing passbooks which has a page-turning mechanism for opening the cover and the inner pages of the passbook prior to a printing operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,497, issued to S. Sato et al. on Oct. 20, 1987 discloses automatic page turning apparatus that turns a page to a partially turned position and includes detection means and control means operable for subsequently completing turning of the page.